Get your flu shots, everyone! Renal Fellow Network recently had to take an H1N1-sponsored weekend off, and I strongly suggest getting the vaccine if available to you; this bug is no fun at all. I’ve written about the…
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disease, caused by mutations within one of two genes (TSC1 or TSC2) which is named for the formation of hard tumors (“tubers”) within a variety of tissues, including the CNS,…
Following on the heels of studies showing a potentially beneficial effect for vasopressin receptor antagonists and rapamycin in the treatment of renal cystic disorders, an article in this month’s JASN by Gattone et al suggests another class of…
Another potentially useful drug to prevent cyst growth in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease comes from the interesting observation that kidney transplant patients with native ADPKD kidneys who were given an immunosuppressant regimen containing the drug rapamycin (sirolimus)…
For the research component of my Nephrology fellowship, I’ve chosen an unorthodox route: I am using the zebrafish as a model organism for the study of kidney disease. The zebrafish system has a number of advantages. First,…
About 60% of all ADPKD patients are estimated to have a chronic pain syndrome, and often this is the initially presenting symptom of an ADPKD patient that brings them to medical attention. An excellent review of this field…
One of the really interesting aspects of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is that only about 1% of all nephrons form cysts. You can do the math: if you have about 1 million nephrons per kidney, and…
Patients with ADPKD are predisposed to nephrolithiasis. The postulated reasons for this increased prevalence of stone disease have ranged from metabolic abnormalities (previous reports have shown an increased tendency for hyperoxaluria, hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia, hyperuricosuria, and distal RTA) to…
One of the extra-renal manifestations of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney is the presence of cerebral aneurysms. Since often these aneurysms are asymptomatic until they rupture, causing severe neurologic problems as well as possibly being fatal, one might think…
I’m suffering from information overload after my first day at the 2008 ASN in Philadelphia, PA. I attended a series of great talks and have a whole list of possible blog topics in my notebook. For now, I’ll…
